What would you have done in this supermarket situation?

A woman of around 70 walks very quickly to an empty checkout in a very busy supermarket and sticks just three items - pieces of fruit - on the conveyer belt. That seems a bit odd but you wheel your trolley behind her as clearly there will be little time to wait.

She glares, picks up the fruit and walks away, saying "these people, pushing in, totally oblivious". It is obvious her comments are about you but you haven't pushed in and you can't comprehend why she is bad mouthing you.. You then hear similar comments being made by her behind your back to someone else.

It turns out that she is speaking to her husband who is standing there with an overflowing trolley. You hadn't seen him until that point, They start to wheel the trolley to the adjoining till.

Sorry - so the woman started putting the contents of the trolley on, you moved in behind her thinking that she was on her own, and then realised that her husband was behind you with the rest of the trolley?

Quote: shaggy292 @ 21st May 2017, 6:16 PM

Sorry - so the woman started putting the contents of the trolley on, you moved in behind her thinking that she was on her own, and then realised that her husband was behind you with the rest of the trolley?

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Yes - I realised once she had walked away, bad mouthing me, and he wasn't immediately behind me. He was still on his way to the till from an aisle.

My guess is that she had spotted an empty till, said to him "I'll pick out three bits of fruit from our trolley and race there before anyone else gets there so as you can join me there".

He dawdled, she was annoyed it was me and not him behind her, I was supposed to somehow know that she had a husband who would join her ultimately and that in her view was me pushing in,

Seeing that I was the only other person with a trolley in the vicinity, I could think she spotted me first and raced in to stop me being at the head of the queue.

She sounds like Major Misunderstanding's wife. It was a genuine mistake and if she had been a bit more patient she might have realised that. If you see her again you could mention it and say you didn't realise with a smile but the chances are she wont be nice back so sod her.

Does sound like she was a pain in the arse.

Here's another one. I found it on my facebook the other day as having been posted by me a year ago. I unload my stuff onto the conveyor belt in the way I want to pack it in bags, according to fresh food, meat etc. etc., and also taking into account I have back problems at times so can't have too much stuff in the bags or it's too heavy for me. So this old bastard behind me starts lifting MY shopping from the end of my line and shoving it on top of my other stuff further down, so that he can start loading up his stuff.
Not only did I glare at him, but I shoved my items right back where they'd been, saying in a chilly voice 'There's a reason for these things being there.' He didn't reply.

I really think it's a bloody cheek to start reorganising somebody else's shopping (or 'messages' as we call it in Scotland).

Oh my god, what a cheeky f**ker. Definitely out of order to touch someone else's shopping.

The original bloke with the trolley should have been a bit faster shouldn't he. Or the wife shouldn't have dashed off ahead. I suppose if they were still within earshot once you realised, and she hadn't been rude, you could have called them back and explained. But probably easier all round just to leave it, like you did.

Quote: zooo @ 21st May 2017, 6:29 PM

Oh my god, what a cheeky f**ker. Definitely out of order to touch someone else's shopping.

The original bloke with the trolley should have been a bit faster shouldn't he. Or the wife shouldn't have dashed off ahead. I suppose if they were still within earshot once you realised, and she hadn't been rude, you could have called them back and explained. But probably easier all round just to leave it, like you did.

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Well, actually I didn't leave it. There was an incident.

Uh oh.

Spill the beans and I don't mean on the toast.

I walked to the next queue which they had joined and said "pardon me, what did you say?". She said that I had pushed in. I said that I hadn't and that they and the rest of the supermarket needed to know the truth. I started speaking firmly and very loudly.

At this point, my mother, 87 and frail, arrived unexpectedly with a bag to help me to add confusion to the matter. We had agreed that she should wait for me in the car. The couple said "leave it, leave it" and I said "so you don't want to hear the truth or anyone else to hear the truth and you expect to go around bad mouthing people without any reply - people according to you should just shut up and put up with it. Well, no, not me, I am going to tell you the truth".

They said "leave it" again. I said "you don't want to hear, do you". And at this point security people were appearing and my mother was getting into an awful state.........and then:

I said that I wanted an apology. They said they had nothing to apologise for. I said they had. They had led to a situation in which my mother who has had heart attacks and had a double bypass operation last May was very anxious and I wasn't at all happy with it.

He said "you will cause her to have another one". I just stopped myself from hitting him. I called him a very nasty piece of work and total slime.....

Any comments on this?

Quote: A Horseradish @ 21st May 2017, 6:24 PM

Yes - I realised once she had walked away, bad mouthing me, and he wasn't immediately behind me. He was still on his way to the till from an aisle.

My guess is that she had spotted an empty till, said to him "I'll pick out three bits of fruit from our trolley and race there before anyone else gets there so as you can join me there".

He dawdled, she was annoyed it was me and not him behind her, I was supposed to somehow know that she had a husband who would join her ultimately and that in her view was me pushing in,

Seeing that I was the only other person with a trolley in the vicinity, I could think she spotted me first and raced in to stop me being at the head of the queue.

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Quote: keewik @ 21st May 2017, 6:26 PM

Does sound like she was a pain in the arse.

Here's another one. I found it on my facebook the other day as having been posted by me a year ago. I unload my stuff onto the conveyor belt in the way I want to pack it in bags, according to fresh food, meat etc. etc., and also taking into account I have back problems at times so can't have too much stuff in the bags or it's too heavy for me. So this old bastard behind me starts lifting MY shopping from the end of my line and shoving it on top of my other stuff further down, so that he can start loading up his stuff.
Not only did I glare at him, but I shoved my items right back where they'd been, saying in a chilly voice 'There's a reason for these things being there.' He didn't reply.

I really think it's a bloody cheek to start reorganising somebody else's shopping (or 'messages' as we call it in Scotland).

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Next time I would definitely just leave it.

Blimey! You can push in front of me anytime!

It sounds like one of those situations where you feel unfairly treated because you are being blamed for something you didn't do and just want to set the record straight but I don't think demanding an apology is ever going to end well. At least it's over now and no-one got hit or thrown out by security.

A middle aged woman blatantly pushed in front of me when I was waiting at a self service checkout once and it really annoyed me because of the way she knew exactly what she was doing but didn't seem to care. While she was scanning her items I approached her and politely said she had pushed in front of me and there is a queue but she said "get over it". I was surprised a woman of her maturity was using that kind of phrase and almost said something but managed to bite my tongue. It would have probably been offensive and I would have regretted saying it.

What I should have done is kept an eye out for her when I was out shopping and planted a security tagged item on her so when she left the store it would set of the alarms. But if they checked the security cameras and saw me planting it on her I could end up in big trub.

The whole scenario sounds like a basket case to me....

Quote: Definitely Tarby @ 21st May 2017, 6:59 PM

What I should have done is kept an eye out for her when I was out shopping and planted a security tagged item on her so when she left the store it would set of the alarms.

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And while she's talking to the security people denying everything you'd walk past her mumbling "Get over it".